Front commander Sodol replaced by Selenskyj after troop complaints

Within hours, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he had replaced Lieutenant General Yuriy Sodol as commander of the United Armed Forces of Ukraine. Sodol is also responsible for ground forces in the critical sector of the front stretching from the eastern regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv. He is expected to be removed from that post as well.

The incident is the latest in a series of shakeups in the military leadership this year amid fighting in Ukraine along the 600-mile-long front line. Sodol had been in the job for just four months, installed by the Ukrainian military commander, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrsky, whom Zelensky appointed to the top post earlier this year.

Analysts say Sodol’s swift dismissal could weaken Syrsky – who is already widely unpopular among rank-and-file soldiers for what they say are brutal and old-fashioned tactics reminiscent of Soviet army leadership. It could also backfire on Zelensky, who assumed more responsibility for battlefield decisions in February when he fired popular general Valery Zalushny.

Since the Russian invasion more than two years ago, public scrutiny of the Ukrainian military – consistently ranked in opinion polls as the country’s most trusted institution – has been taboo. And disputes and complaints within its own ranks are usually kept confidential; soldiers who criticize their leadership face retaliation. Discussions of combat losses are considered a state secret, and Ukraine’s political leadership has chosen to downplay this so as not to weaken society’s morale.

Krotevych’s call for an investigation into Sodol is a surprising example of the fractures within the Ukrainian command. It echoes what other Ukrainian service members have been quietly grumbling about for months – orders they considered unreasonable and that led to casualties while they were understaffed and under-armed.

All this comes against the backdrop of Russia recapturing about 260 square miles in the past four months.

“It bothers me that they condemn battalion and brigade commanders for the loss of an observation post, but not a general for the loss (of regions) and dozens of cities and thousands of soldiers,” Krotevych said on Telegram.

In his speech on Monday evening, Zelensky did not give a reason for Sodol’s dismissal, saying only that he would be replaced by Brigadier General Andriy Hnatov. On Wednesday morning, Zelensky posted a video from the Donetsk region after visiting soldiers in the area with Syrsky and Hnatov.

“General Hnatov’s task is clear: to destroy the occupying forces and, what is important, to save the lives of our soldiers as much as possible,” Zelensky said.

According to his complaint, obtained by The Washington Post, Krotevych accused Sodol of a series of missteps dating back to his role as commander of the doomed defense of the city of Mariupol in 2022. In that siege, the Azov Brigade, part of the National Guard, gained notoriety for holding out at the Azovstal plant long after the rest of the city had already fallen.

“Although General Sodol did not lead the defense of the city and did not spend a single hour in Mariupol, he was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine,” Krotevych wrote, adding that he neither supplied the Azov Brigade with ammunition nor built up the city’s defensive structures before the attack.

When a town commander asked Sodol for instructions, Krotevych witnessed Sodol respond, “We’re (fucked),” before hanging up, he said in the complaint.

More recently, during his time on the Eastern Front, Sodol ordered Azov to advance without the necessary artillery ammunition. When arguments were made as to why this was not possible, “an official investigation was launched against (Azov’s) commander,” the complaint states.

“General Sodol commands the troops inadequately and his decisions have led to the deaths of thousands of soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the National Guard and other defense units, which has resulted in a weak position at the front and the loss of large territories,” Krotevych said.

Other influential figures have also questioned Sodol’s order. Ukrainian activist Serhii Sternenko, whose YouTube channel has nearly 2 million subscribers, wrote on X that his appointment was “a personnel disaster.” Sternenko and others have claimed that Ukrainian marines, who were ordered to attack the left bank of the Kherson region, suffered senseless losses.

“It is difficult to imagine a worse candidate who is (even) more indifferent to the lives of soldiers,” he added.

MP Marianna Bezuhla, a member of the parliament’s defense committee, called Sodol “a criminal” in a Facebook post and also called on Syrsky to resign. Bezuhla was similarly critical of Syrsky’s predecessor, Zalushny.

The change in personnel at the top Ukrainian military level comes at a turbulent time on the battlefield. Since February, Ukraine has lost the eastern town of Avdiivka and a number of villages west of it. Russia has also advanced north of Avdiivka with an attack on the town of Khasiv Yar. And last month, Russia began a new offensive in the northeastern Kharkiv region, seizing new territory near the border.

The setbacks were undoubtedly due to a six-month delay in US military aid, but also to the slow mobilization of new troops, even though Ukrainian commanders reported that the units urgently needed supplies.

With each setback at the front, Syrsky made rapid personnel changes, dismissing lower-level commanders and even disbanding an entire brigade stationed at Chasiv Yar.

Less than a week after Russia began its offensive in the Kharkiv region last month, Syrsky was replaced by Yuri Halushkin, who was in command of units in the area.

Recently, soldiers said, officers at the battalion and company levels who question orders to hold a position when they believe it would be wiser to step back are being punished or removed. That has led to weakened morale on the battlefield, military officials said, and a growing loss of trust in top leadership.

“I saw senior officers making inadequate decisions because the ‘generals’ from above told them to. Since they were not there, they were just giving orders,” said the head of a drone unit, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

“It was difficult to prove that this was arrogance and foolishness, although often it involved moving a position by 40 to 100 meters, which would have increased the security of my position,” he added.